With an increase in the packing density of LSIs, the required linewidths of circuits included in semiconductor devices become finer year by year. To form a desired circuit pattern on a semiconductor device, a method is employed in which a high-precision original pattern (i.e., a mask, or also particularly called reticle, which is used in a stepper or a scanner) formed on quartz is transferred to a wafer in a reduced manner by using a reduced-projection exposure apparatus. The high-precision original pattern is written by using an electron-beam writing apparatus, in which a so-called electron-beam lithography technique is employed.
A writing apparatus using a multi-beam can irradiate with many beams at once, as compared with the case where writing is performed by a single electron beam, thus the throughput can be significantly improved. In a multi-beam writing apparatus that uses a blanking aperture array, which is one form of multi-beam writing apparatus, for instance, electron beams discharged from an electron gun are passed through a shaping aperture array having multiple openings, and a multi-beam (multiple electron beams) is formed. A multi-beam passes through blankers respectively corresponding to the blanking aperture array. The blanking aperture array includes an electrode pair for deflecting a beam individually, and an opening for beam passage between the electrode pair, and one of the electrode pair (blanker) is fixed to the ground potential, and blanking deflection is performed individually on a passing electron beam by switching the other electrode between the ground potential and a potential other than the ground potential. An electron beam deflected by a blanker is shielded, and a sample is irradiated with an electron beam not deflected.
The blanking aperture array includes a circuit element for performing independent control over the electrode potential of each blanker. Thus, a blanking aperture array chip is fabricated by performing MEMS processing on an LSI chip in which circuit elements are formed, and forming electrode pairs and openings. Specifically, circuit elements are disposed directly under the electrodes, and around a beam passage hole. For this reason, when a multi-beam is formed by a shaping aperture array, scattering electrons scattered by an opening edge may collide with a circuit element mounted in the blanking aperture array, and an operation failure of the circuit element may be caused. In particular, when the energy of the electron beam at a blanking aperture position is several tens key, the range of the electrons in silicon is several microns or greater, thus electrons, which collide with an electrode or an opening sidewall and recoil, jump into an LSI circuit, and charge a circuit element.